With coalition talks deadlocked after the 2026 elections, the Likud is exploring dramatic options to break the impasse. Despite years of mutual recriminations and deep-seated mistrust, the ruling party is entertaining the idea of bringing Yisrael Beiteinu chairman Avigdor Liberman into the coalition.
Ideologically, Yisrael Beiteinu is closer to Likud than to many elements in the opposition bloc, but the profound and enduring crisis of trust with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remains the central obstacle to any such move.
Rotation in the premiership and guarantees from Trump and Herzog
To overcome the acute lack of trust, Likud sources are floating proposals to significantly raise the price and offer Liberman a rotation agreement for the prime ministership itself, according to a report this morning in Maariv.
The party understands well that Liberman, who remembers up close the failure of Benny Gantz's rotation agreement, will not rely on verbal promises or standard political agreements from Netanyahu. Accordingly, creative ideas are being examined for providing external and international guarantees for the implementation of the agreement.
According to the Liud, possible guarantors for implementing the rotation include President Yitzchak Herzog and even United States President Donald Trump.
